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Will credit monitoring reduce the impact of identity theft?

Credit monitoring services have become a very lucrative business. Sadly, there are those who believe these services are unnecessary and a waste of money. The biggest question that one should ask themselves is if they have the time to monitor their own credit around the clock, every day. There are different tiers of protection that can be offered, all of which come along with a different price tag. Credit monitoring services may still worth investing in, even if you only invest in the least amount of protection available. When it comes to identity theft, you can never be too safe.

Is it Already Too Late?

You may be asking why should I check my credit report. Not only should you be checking it to view all of your accounts and payment history, you can also see any recent activity that has taken place. Those who check their credit regularly are far more likely to prevent becoming a victim of identity theft versus those individuals who only check their credit once a year or less. This one of the reasons why credit monitoring is a great move. This happens behind the scenes for those individuals who do not put forth much of an effort to monitor their credit for themselves.

Some may be questioning if they are paying for credit monitoring services and some ‘fraudulent or suspicious’ activity is noticed, that would mean that it is too late, right? Wrong – although someone may have your information, you can stop them in their tracks, place credit freezes and such before things really get out of hand. An identity thief is not thinking about whether or not you monitor your credit report, they are thinking about stealing your information for their own personal gain.

Prevention

In conjunction to what credit monitoring services can offer you, and depending on the level of service you decide to utilize, you can take extra precautionary steps on your own.

Here are a couple more tips on how to prevent identity theft. Tighten up on all of your security information and passwords. As much as it may be a hassle, passwords should be changed frequently, no less than every three months and do not make every password the same thing. If information needs to be written down and locked away, then take those steps. Password protect everything, your phone, computer – anything that gives you an option to password protect it. Beware of all of the different frauds that are out there. Professional hackers and identity thieves make a living on how to make people fall victim to their game. Read up on the latest scams and let your friends and family know. Do not surf the web on unsecure sites and there is no need to click on included links in email messages. The computer, although is very helpful and almost a requirement for survival these days, can be a large trap.

Trust Issues

No matter how much you trust an individual, you should not trust them with all of your personal information. You never know if you are always going to have the person around and, unfortunately, people can be vindictive and hurtful if they want be. At the end of the day, you only have yourself to rely on and have to live with the consequences of your decisions. Why not look into credit monitoring services? What do you have to lose? Nothing! Instead, you’ll be protecting your entire existence and financial future that you have worked so hard to establish.

Credit monitoring services have the ability to see if someone is using your personal information to apply for a job, applying for credit cards or cell phones, and if anyone is currently using your social security number other than you. Do you have the ability to monitor that yourself? Sure, but this is around the clock service with instant real time notifications. Credit monitoring, in addition to taking your own precautionary steps and any protection offered from your credit lenders and financial institutions, should greatly assist in helping safeguard your personal information so you do not fall victim to identity theft.